Archive for the Category Metabolism

NOTE: The following is guest post from John Barban. John is a professional strength coach and author of ” The Anything Goes Diet” and ” Venus Index Workout”

So you’ve probably read some sort of marketing about foods that can ‘boost’ your metabolism and crash diets that can ‘slow down’ your metabolism.

This is all clever marketing speak. There is nothing you can do to speed up or slow down your metabolism to any degree that will cause weight loss or weight gain.

Getting caught up thinking about your ‘metabolism’ is just going to distract you from what is really responsible for your weight loss…and that is controlling your food intake.

A dramatically heightened metabolic rate that is high enough to also cause significant calorie burning would mean that you’re also running a very high fever and are very sick.

This is obviously not a good way to be losing weight. Adding muscle doesn’t do much to your metabolic rate either as one extra pound of muscle only burns about 5 more calories per day.

And finally stimulant supplements marketed as metabolic boosters can only increase the amount of daily calories you burn by 75-125 calories per day…this is about the same as having one extra cup of coffee with cream and sugar.

The marketing focused on metabolism is very powerful because most people make the mistake of assuming they can ‘feel’ their metabolic rate.

It’s easy to assume being ‘tired’ or lethargic means you have a slower metabolism. But this isn’t true. What it means is that you didn’t get enough sleep!

Metabolic rate isn’t anything you can ‘feel’ (besides the short term elevation of heart rate and sweating when you exercise).

The truth is your metabolism is going to be pretty stable no matter what you do.

The good news is that for the vast majority of people and this likely includes you too, there is nothing wrong with your metabolism. And that’s a good thing.

Try to avoid the marketing hype about metabolism and keep your focus on what really matters for weight loss.

I will tell you that my height is anywhere between 5’10” and 5’11”, depending on who is asking or depending on my mood.

If I were to be honest, I’d have to say that I’m 5’10”, but who doesn’t want to be a little taller?

Tall people get all the good stuff. They have better jobs. They’re better at sports. Girls like tall guys. Guys like tall girls. Of course you know I’m stereotyping, but you get the idea.

To top it all off, tall people get to eat more without gaining weight.

Your metabolic rate is closely connected to your lean body mass. Foods don’t boost your metabolism. What determines the number of calories you burn in a day is the activity of your internal organs and muscles.

Your lean body mass is most closely connected to your height.

I once obtained the use of an exercise physiology lab. From experiments I performed there, I learned that, for men who are approximately 6’ tall, lean body mass changed by approximately 7 pounds for every inch gained or lost. A 6’1” man will have about 7 more pounds of lean body mass than a 6’0” man.

This fact has a huge effect on how much you can eat.

Let’s take a 175 pound man with 12% body fat. This man has around 154 pounds of lean body mass.

According to the Katch and McArdle method of estimating resting metabolic rates, we can estimate that this man’s resting metabolic rate is 1,882 calories in a 24-hour period.

If we add in a daily activity factor of 1.2, we can estimate that this 175 pound man would need about 2,258 calories in order to maintain his current weight at his current activity level.

Now, let’s take the same man, with the same body type, but let’s make him 6’2”. The extra 6.6 pounds of lean body mass per inch will yield you a 205 pound man with 12% body fat and 180 pounds of lean body mass.

This 6’2” man would have a resting metabolic rate of 2,141.2 calories per day. Using the same activity factor, he would need about 2,570 calories in order to maintain his current weight at his current activity level.

Simply because he is taller, the 6’2” man gets to consume an extra 310 calories per day.

If you’re a 5’2” woman who is amazed at your 5’10” female friend who can eat anything she wants and still stay thin, this example should help you understand why that happens.

It may not be fair, but it’s true. Your height plays a role in how much you can or can’t eat.

If you’re reading this article to learn which foods you should eat in order to boost your metabolism, you’ve just bought in to one of the biggest marketing angles in the weight loss industry today. Many in the industry try to get you to believe that your metabolism is to blame for your weight problem. But, ironically, those people aren’t even using the word “metabolism” correctly.

Metabolism is the term scientists use to describe the chemical reactions that take place in your body. Metabolic rate describes the calories burned by your body.

There is nothing you can do to significantly change your metabolism or your metabolic rate other than to exercise. Your body will burn a certain number of calories in any given day, no matter what you eat.

While caffeine and other stimulants may help you burn a few extra calories per day, no foods or diet plans exist which can cause you to magically boost your metabolism.

Even caffeine – the amount consumed with a couple extra sips of regular coffee – will only cause you to burn 30 or 40 extra calories in a day. Even if the caffeine was capable of raising your metabolic rate by 100 calories in a day, this amount wouldn’t change the amount of body fat you have.

Focus on an easy diet plan which can allow you to enjoy your food while eating less. Forget about boosting your metabolism with any diet plan. Eat Stop Eat is designed to help you eat less without sacrificing the foods you like to eat.

Try Eat Stop Eat, and see for yourself how easy it is to never worry about your metabolism again.

Many people think that, if a kilogram of muscle burns 21.6 calories in 2 hours, a pound of muscle must burn about 10 calories.

This is not true.

A pound of lean body mass is not the same thing as a pound of muscle. Lean body mass includes everything in your body that isn’t fat, which means that the calculation includes highly metabolic tissues like your liver, heart and viscera.

When you add lean body mass to your body through resistance training, you are adding muscle mass. You aren’t adding mass to your organs. And even though you have more muscle in your body than organs, they only share about half of the metabolic work.

For every pound of muscle you gain from working out, you can expect to burn an extra five calories in 24 hours while your body is at rest.

Adding muscle to boost your metabolism may not work like you would like it to. If you want to burn fat, rely on your diet.

Bodybuilders and fitness models often use a drug called Clenbuterol to increase their metabolism. Clenbuterol causes fatigue, perspiration, an elevated heart rate, heavy breathing, thirst – and even heart palpitations.

Hyperthyroidism, a medical condition, also causes an elevated metabolic rate. Symptoms of hyperthyroidism include fatigue, weakness, irritability, perspiration, and an increased heart rate.

Most of us have not taken Clenbuterol, and most of us don’t suffer from hyperthyroidism, but most of us have increased our metabolic rate through exercise.

Try this: The next time you go to the gym, walk for 10 to 20 minutes on a treadmill at a speed of 5 miles per hour.

How will you feel when you are finished?

If you were to increase your metabolic rate by a large percentage, you would feel like you’d been walking on a treadmill all day.

Will so-called metabolism-boosting recipes such as taking a teaspoon of cinnamon or drinking a cup of green tea make you feel like you’ve been exercising all day? Obviously not.

If your metabolism is truly elevated, you’ll be sweaty, tired and thirsty. And if you feel that way all the time, you could have some serious health problems.

Short metabolism boosts are good for you, but 50 to 100 percent boosts are neither realistic nor safe.

If you want to lose weight, focus on eating less, not burning more. Your diet should help you lose body fat, and your exercise routine should be used to help you maintain or increase your muscle mass. Also, drink less alcohol because it can slows down fat burning – https://epicraze.com/alcohol-slows-fat-burning/

Cinnamon and green tea have their advantages, but they won’t help you lose weight by boosting your metabolism.